The metamorphosis of the world space economy: investigating global trends and national differences among major space nations’ market structure

This article investigates the evolution of space industries from 2000 to 2013. Building on descriptive statistics regarding the volumes of spacecraft launched by major space Nations (United-States, Russia, Europe, China, Japan and India), it provides evidence that the asymmetry between government (e.g., space agencies and military organizations) and non-government customers (e.g., universities, research laboratories and private companies) decreased before getting stable. However, it also demonstrates that the shift toward a (more) balanced market structure between public and private, commercial and non-commercial, government and non-government customers of space assets is not homogeneous among space Nations.JEL Codes: O3, O33, O38